Tea Partyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/tea-party
en-usSun, 02 Aug 2015 17:30:01 -0400Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:30:01 -0400The latest news on Tea Party from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-why-ted-cruz-is-wowing-some-of-wall-streets-money-men-2015-5Why Ted Cruz is winning a lot of friends on Wall Streethttp://www.businessinsider.com/r-why-ted-cruz-is-wowing-some-of-wall-streets-money-men-2015-5
Thu, 14 May 2015 07:23:00 -0400Emily Flitter
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/55542f655afbd3c0538b4567-450-300/why-ted-cruz-is-wowing-some-of-wall-streets-money-men.jpg" border="0" alt="U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks during the Freedom Summit in Greenville, South Carolina May 9, 2015. REUTERS/Chris Keane "></p><p></p>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Presidential candidate Ted Cruz, a Tea Party favorite and leading figure in the 2013 government shutdown that rattled investors, isn’t the kind of politician who usually wins a lot of friends among Wall Street campaign donors.</p>
<p>The freshman Republican senator from Texas has none of the moderate tendencies that financiers often prefer in presidential candidates. Cruz relishes his image as an anti-establishment figure and boasts of his aversion to compromise. He has vowed to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and repeal President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare plan, commonly known as Obamacare.</p>
<p>Despite the uncompromising rhetoric, Cruz is winning praise from some potential Wall Street donors, including bankers and hedge fund managers, who told Reuters there is more to him than the conservative firebrand of the campaign trail. He has been courting financiers in their homes in New York and Greenwich, Connecticut, they said.</p>
<p>But the praise does not appear to be translating into cash donations — at least so far. Some potential donors on Wall Street said they had doubts about whether Cruz can win the 2016 election, when he would likely face off against Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Cruz said his campaign was happy with its initial fundraising effort and believed that the senator appealed to a wide range of people.</p>
<p>Financiers who have met with Cruz said he demonstrated a firm grasp of specific policy issues and was able to discuss them at length and offer specific ideas of his own, without dodging tough questions or resorting to rhetorical flourishes.</p>
<p>This is one reason why he is seen as a stronger candidate than some other favorites of the small government Tea Party movement such as Michele Bachmann, who ran a failed bid for president in 2012.</p>
<p>"He's probably the smartest person running," said Thomas Peterffy, the billionaire founder of Interactive Brokers. "Even though personally I do not believe that abortion is something that should be prohibited and I do not believe we should not care about the environment, nevertheless I think Ted has the qualities — he definitely has a shot."</p>
<p>Cruz has said state governments should be able to set their own limits on abortions and that he does not see evidence that global warming is occurring.</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/548dde2aeab8eade220d842c-1200-924/ted-cruz-94.jpg" border="0" alt="ted cruz"></p>
<h3>CRUZ SURPRISES POTENTIAL DONORS</h3>
<p>Peterffy, who spent $8 million on TV ads in 2012 urging Americans to vote Obama out of office or face creeping socialism, said he had not yet made up his mind about which Republican to support in the 2016 race. He said his decision is going to be based on whom he deems electable. But he added that he expected either Ted Cruz or Florida Senator Marco Rubio to become president "within the next 20 years."</p>
<p>One Boston-based lawyer who advises clients, "mostly multi-millionaires and just one billionaire," on political donations, said each one of his clients had met with Cruz and half of them had come away praising the senator as smart and compelling in a one-on-one setting.</p>
<p>Based on Cruz's reputation as a right-wing flame-thrower, the lawyer, who did not want to be identified by name, said he had not expected any of his clients to like the candidate. "I'm surprised about the half that came away impressed," he said.</p>
<p>But his clients are not alone. Others who have met Cruz in private settings say he comes across as a brainy politician whose most hardline statements seem like popularity-seeking varnish that will eventually be scraped away.</p>
<p>"When I saw him he was completely sober — he was having serious policy discussions," said one hedge fund CFO, who declined to be named. He said he was not normally inclined to get involved in politics and had to be dragged to a house party in Greenwich at which Cruz had appeared alongside John Boehner, the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives.</p>
<p>"He's a real person. He's smart, he knows issues — that's just not true of a lot of politicians," the CFO said.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br></span></p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5260483669beddbc70627755-1200-924/ted-cruz-36.jpg" border="0" alt="Ted Cruz"></p>
<h3>TRANSLATING PRAISE INTO CASH</h3>
<p>It's not yet clear though whether Cruz can translate the receptiveness of a powerful community outside of his base of conservative activists into more financial support.</p>
<p>Robert Mercer, the billionaire founder of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, last month contributed a large portion of the $31 million donated in one week to a consortium of pro-Cruz political action committees called Keep the Promise.</p>
<p>But other mega-donors who have met with Cruz and said they liked him, including the billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, have held off donating to him over concerns about his electability. Strong showings in the early primary states of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina will be key to winning more donors, strategists say.</p>
<p>New Hampshire strategist Dave Carney pointed to Cruz's strength in a series of straw polls in South Carolina - in April he won in four important counties — as evidence that his campaign has legs. To win in New Hampshire Cruz needs to focus on meeting voters in person and will have to win over moderate and independent voters in addition to conservative activists.</p>
<p>"He has abilities as a retail politician to listen and be sincere and authentic," Carney said, adding that while Cruz "may use different language," his message has to remain consistent to be taken seriously.</p>
<p>Cruz has establishment credentials that set him apart from other populist Republicans such as Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucus in 2008 but lost the party presidential nomination to Senator John McCain, and Bachmann, who won a straw poll vote in the early voting state of Iowa in 2011 only to see her presidential campaign later lose momentum.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5510604069bedd6f07a1aaa0-1160-870/heidi-cruz.png" border="0" alt="Heidi Cruz"></p>
<p>Cruz, a former official in President George W. Bush's administration, holds degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. His wife, who worked in the Bush White House, has taken unpaid leave from Goldman Sachs in Houston, where she is a managing director overseeing a wealth management unit.</p>
<p>Some investors said his braininess and establishment credentials won't be enough for Cruz unless he pulls back from some of his more hardline positions.</p>
<p>"Ted Cruz has been to my house with his wife," said Andy Sabin, a metals trader and refinery owner in Easthampton, New York who gives not only to political causes but to environmental conservation efforts as well.</p>
<p>"I said, 'some time in the next four or five cycles you will be president but you’ve got to come to the center.'"</p>
<p>Sabin is leaning toward supporting former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who has positioned himself as a moderate able to appeal to a cross section of Republican voters.</p>
<p>T. Boone Pickens, the Texan hedge fund tycoon, called Cruz "a serious guy" in an interview with Reuters. But he too, was throwing his support behind Bush, he said on the sidelines of the Skybridge Alternatives Conference, known as SALT, in Texas.</p>
<p>Anthony Scaramucci, who organized the hedge fund conference and is founder of the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, said he didn't think Cruz had quite broken through to Wall Street.</p>
<p>"Ted is super smart and touches a nerve in the heartland where people are unhappy with the way things are going," Scaramucci said. "But it will be very difficult for him to garner establishment money."</p>
<p>(Reporting By Emily Flitter in New York; Additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Las Vegas, editing by Ross Colvin)</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-why-ted-cruz-is-wowing-some-of-wall-streets-money-men-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-after-black-widow-spider-bite-poison-2015-4">Here's what happens when you get bitten by a black widow</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/a-conservative-legislator-is-fighting-for-marijuana-legalization-in-texas-because-god-didnt-make-a-mistake-2015-5A conservative legislator is fighting for marijuana legalization in Texas because God didn't make 'a mistake'http://www.businessinsider.com/a-conservative-legislator-is-fighting-for-marijuana-legalization-in-texas-because-god-didnt-make-a-mistake-2015-5
Mon, 11 May 2015 10:53:09 -0400Brian Booker
<div class="abstract"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5550bbe56bb3f7a6598539d1-668-500/david-sampson.jpg" border="0" alt="david sampson">
<p class="abstract">A controversial marijuana legalization bill is advancing in the Texas legislature and Texas Rep. David Sampson is urging his religiously conservative colleagues to back the bill.</p>
<div class="article-column">
<p class="body">According to Mr. Sampson&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/05/08/backed-by-the-christian-case-for-weed-legalization-bill-moves-forward-in-texas/" target="_blank">God doesn't make mistakes</a>, and thus marijuana was no accident or oversight that the government needs to regulate. Sampson has also argued that the government's efforts to regulate marijuana results in the violation of Constitutional rights.</p>
<div></div>
<p class="body">Sampson is backed by the Tea Party. He has enjoyed&nbsp;<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/david-simpson/" target="_blank">exceptionally strong support in past elections&nbsp;</a>and has not been seriously challenged in either the Republican primary or general election since winning his first election in 2010.</p>
<div></div>
<p class="body">This past Wednesday the bill (HB-2165) took a small, but crucial, step forward. The Texas legislature’s House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee voted in favor of the bill, thus moving it onto the next step of the legislative process.</p>
<div></div>
<p class="body">With the Texas legislative session set to end in June, it's unlikely that the bill will have enough time to make it to the floor for a vote. Even if the bill does somehow make it to the floor, it's unlikely that the Texas House will vote it into law.</p>
<div></div>
<p class="body">Still, the advance of the bill hints at a changing political reality in Texas. With more states legalizing and decriminalizing marijuana, views on cannabis appear to be softening in Texas.</p>
<div></div>
<p class="body">Indeed, the Texas public is warming up to marijuana.<a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2014/02/26/uttt-poll-few-texans-would-keep-marijuana-illegal/" target="_blank">&nbsp;A University of Texas/ Texas Tribune poll found</a>&nbsp;that only 23 percent of Texans support outlawing pot in all cases. 28 percent support legalizing medicinal marijuana, while 49 percent support legalizing marijuana possession for any purpose.</p>
<div></div>
<p class="body">With public support shifting dramatically in favor of legalization, it may only be a matter of time before marijuana is legalized in the state.</p>
</div>
</div><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/16-most-socially-advanced-countries-2015-4?op=1#ixzz3Zq0nJ9tK" >The 16 most socially advanced countries in the world </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-conservative-legislator-is-fighting-for-marijuana-legalization-in-texas-because-god-didnt-make-a-mistake-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aerial-photographer-city-los-angeles-new-york-helicopter-drone-2015-5">This aerial photographer captures an inspired perspective of Los Angeles at night</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-lawmakers-republican-leaders-are-punishing-us-for-defying-them-2015-4Tea party lawmakers: Republican leaders are punishing us for defying themhttp://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-lawmakers-republican-leaders-are-punishing-us-for-defying-them-2015-4
Mon, 27 Apr 2015 10:31:46 -0400ALAN FRAM
<p class="ap-story-p"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/553e4710ecad046653e9d41b-1200-924/thomas-massie.jpg" border="0" alt="thomas massie"></p><p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- As he began his first re-election run in early 2013, tea party Rep. Thomas Massie had no trouble raising money from business interests.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">Then came 2015.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">The Kentucky Republican voted against returning John Boehner, R-Ohio, to the speaker's job and opposed an effort by GOP leaders to avoid a standoff with President Barack Obama over immigration that threatened to shut down the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">In the first three months of 2013, Massie reported $46,000 rolling in from tobacco, trucking, health care and other industries. During the first quarter of 2015, Massie has collected just $1,000 from political action committees, which funnel contributions to candidates from business, labor or ideological interests. That money came from the conservative Eagle Forum.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">Massie and some other conservatives say the reason their business contributions have fallen is simple: GOP leaders are retaliating for their defiance.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">"Those who don't go along to get along aren't going to get as many PAC checks," Massie said last week, using the acronym for political action committees.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">None offers concrete proof that top Republicans are behind the contribution falloff. But they say the evidence is clear.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/525a99fa69bedd9d2d7adfc3-1200-858/rtx13g2o.jpg" border="0" alt="ted cruz tea party"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"I'm an engineer with a science background. I look at empirical evidence. If you have enough data points, you can prove something," Massie said.</span></p>
<p class="ap-story-p">Conservatives point out that leadership has targeted them before, and they cite Boehner's removal of some rebels from coveted committee assignments. In March, an outside group allied with GOP leaders ran radio and Internet ads accusing some House Republicans who opposed efforts to end the Homeland Security impasse of being "willing to put our security at risk."</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">GOP leaders deny they have orchestrated an effort to deny business support to recalcitrant conservatives, arguing that they want to protect Republican-held seats. But they acknowledge that votes can have consequences with business groups whose political spending plays major roles in congressional campaigns.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">"If they agree with what the speaker is trying to accomplish and you don't support the speaker, why should they support you?" asked Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., a Boehner ally.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50e382f2ecad045d4e000019-590-437/tomcole.1.13.jpg" border="0" alt="tom cole" style="color: #000000;"></p>
<p class="ap-story-p">Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that many GOP rebels are having a harder time raising cash from corporate interests, while others are not.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">In a public show of disloyalty that party leaders scorn, 25 House Republicans voted against Boehner to be speaker last January, including one who voted "present." Of the 24 expected to seek re-election next year, 15 saw their contributions from PACs fall between this year's opening quarter and the same period in 2013.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">For a few who did not file reports for the first quarter of 2013, this year's data was compared with the earliest report from their 2014 campaign.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">None of the 24 has received contributions yet this year from political committees run by Boehner and the other two top GOP leaders, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, according to FEC reports. The three leaders have donated to dozens of other House Republicans, chiefly those facing tight re-elections.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">All except perhaps three of the 24 mutinous Republicans are in safe GOP districts and should breeze to re-election.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/51c20ea1eab8eaf57a000000-1200-858/170854715.jpg" border="0" alt="IRS tea party rallies"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In the first quarter of 2015, maverick Tim Huelskamp of Kansas saw his contributions from political committees fall in half from the $35,000 he reported raising during that period in 2013. He says lobbyists have told him of a "do not give list" from top Republicans that names about 35 GOP lawmakers.</span></p>
<p class="ap-story-p">"Folks understood, 'Hey, you may not get what you want if you're helping the folks'" on the list, said Huelskamp.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">Leading Republicans deny such a list exists.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">"That is beyond conspiracy theory, because if someone was going to do the list, it would be me," said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., a Boehner friend and frequent critic of his party's insurgents.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">Top Republicans say campaign contributions can vary over time for several reasons, including a preference by many donors to help incumbents in tight races or freshmen as well as lawmakers' own money-raising efforts. They note that the first quarter of a nonelection year is early, with plenty of time for donations before the November 2016 election.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5165f93eeab8ea513000000b-1200-924/ap120216129953.jpg" border="0" alt="Greg Walden chained cpi club for growth"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"You can blame failure on a lot of fathers," said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who leads the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign organization.</span></p>
<p class="ap-story-p">Not all rebellious Republicans whose business contributions have dropped blame party leaders, and many have found ways to offset the smaller amounts they've raised from political committees.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">Of the 24 House Republicans who opposed Boehner's re-election, half have raised more this year than they did in early 2013 and 18 have fatter campaign treasuries than they did then.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., got 12 votes for speaker in January. His political committee contributions plummeted from $38,000 in the first quarter of 2013 to $3,000 this year.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">But thanks to a huge jump in individuals' donations, Webster raised $233,000 overall from January through March of 2015, nearly $100,000 more than in early 2013. He says he's not aware of GOP leaders steering business money away from him.</p>
<p class="ap-story-p">"I would suspect if people like the job I'm doing, they're going to give to us," he said.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-lawmakers-republican-leaders-are-punishing-us-for-defying-them-2015-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/charge-iphone-faster-apple-battery-life-2015-2">How to supercharge your iPhone in only 5 minutes</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-youtube-star-says-he-may-vote-for-hillary-clinton-2015-4Tea Party YouTube star says he may vote for Hillary Clinton so he can keep Obamacare (HTTPTALKINGPOINTSMEMOCOMLIVEWIREJAMES, WEBB, TEA, PARTIER, OBAMACARE, HILLARY)http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-youtube-star-says-he-may-vote-for-hillary-clinton-2015-4
Wed, 15 Apr 2015 18:09:04 -0400AHIZA GARCIA
<div>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/552ee0356bb3f78a4acbe065-600-/screen-shot-2015-04-15-at-60210-pm.png" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2015 04 15 at 6.02.10 PM" width="600">YouTube user and gun channel host James Webb confessed to his viewers this week that he'd been grappling with uncertainty about who to vote for in the upcoming 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p>Webb discussed his struggle in a video entitled "This Tea Party Patriot May Vote For Hillary," which was uploaded on Monday to his channel "Hot Lead retired."</p>
</div>
<div>
<p>"Hello, YouTube. I'm kinda having a difficult decision," Webb lamented in the 3-minute video. "I don't know which party to vote for. ... I don't know whether to go for a Republican or a Democrat -- and I'm serious. Because I asked myself, I said, 'Which party has helped me out the most in the last, I don't know, 15 years? Twenty?' And it was the Repub-, err, Democrat Party. The Democrats."</p>
<p>"I mean if it wasn't for Obama and that Obamacare, I would still be working," Webb continued. "With Obamacare, I got to retire at age 50. Because if it wasn't for Obamacare I would had to work till I was 65 and get on Medicare because health insurance is expensive."</p>
<p>Webb stressed how valuable it was that he'd been able to retire so early and still had health care coverage. He also noted that Obamacare reimburses him for his gym membership.</p>
<p>"It's some kind of healthy lifestyle plan, program," Webb said. "So I mean, you know, I got, I'm trying to work out and exercise a little bit and lose some weight 'cause I'm retired now. I got all kinds of time to go to the gym, swim, you know, lift a little weights, do some little walking, run track, stuff."</p>
<p>Webb also bemoaned the fact that he couldn't put his faith in the Republican Party any longer.</p>
<p>"The Republican Party they ain't done nothing for me, man. Nothing," Webb said. "So, I'm leaning toward voting for Hillary. Unless something major comes up. I don't trust the Republicans anymore. They're wanting to repeal the Obamacare. And, I don't want them to do that, man, 'cause then I'll have to go to work again."</p>
<p>"My life's already planned out," Webb added.</p>
<p>Webb said he'd voted for Republicans for 32 years, was a "charter member" of his Tea Party Patriot chapter and was a veteran of the U.S. Army "under Reagan" but pointed out that "things have changed."</p>
<p>"Unless the Republicans change with it, I'm probably gonna have to swing my vote over toward Hillary."</p>
<p>Watch the video below, courtesy of Webb's YouTube channel:</p>
<div>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tNfo0o7ay7A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p class="embed-spacer"></p>
</div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-youtube-star-says-he-may-vote-for-hillary-clinton-2015-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/smartphone-impact-brain-body-sleep-2015-2">This is what happens to your brain and body when you check your phone before bed</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/democrats-think-last-year-was-great-republicans-think-it-was-terrible-2015-1Democrats Think Last Year Was Great, Republicans Think It Was Terriblehttp://www.businessinsider.com/democrats-think-last-year-was-great-republicans-think-it-was-terrible-2015-1
Sat, 03 Jan 2015 05:43:27 -0500Harrison Jacobs
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">It’s an oft-repeated statement that America is more partisan than ever. Fox News put that question to the test with a year-end poll asking a simple question: Was 2014 a good year?</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The answer depends who you ask.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Although 57% of Americans told Fox News that 2014 was a good year, the numbers <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2014/12/29/fox-news-poll-voters-say-2014-was-good-year/">were drastically different depending on whether the respondent identified as a Republican or Democrat</a>, and whether or not the respondent approved of President Barack Obama. Here's what the pollster found:<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/54a6ef93ecad04f0478b456c-800-549/screen shot 2015-01-02 at 1.02.18 pm.png" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2015 01 02 at 1.02.18 PM"></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Democrats overwhelmingly found 2014 to be a good year. Republicans were far less satisfied. And as you can see, those that approved of Obama thought 2014 was good, while those that didn't thought it was bad.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">One thing to keep in mind about this poll is that respondents were apparently asked a number of other political questions before assessing 2014. This may have influenced them to place more weight on the year's political cycle.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">However, The Wall Street Journal did <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/12/31/poll-as-years-go-2014-gets-highest-marks-since-2004/?utm_content=bufferc8f10&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">a similar poll with NBCNews and found similar results</a>. Democrats thought 2014 was average or better. Republicans thought it was below average. And, as you can see from the chart, a similar phenomenon happened in 2004, when President George W. Bush was in office. Most Republicans thought 2004 was a great year and most Democrats didn’t.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/54a6f64a6da81100048b4567-800-577/screen shot 2015-01-02 at 1.03.04 pm-1.png" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2015 01 02 at 1.03.04 PM">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Overall, it appears that Americans found 2014 to be one of the best years in the last decade, according to the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. The survey found that 47% of Americans thought the year was "average or above," which may say more about Americans' views relative to the last decade rather than something specifically positive about 2014.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/54a6f64aeab8ea0b2a8b4570-800-588/screen shot 2015-01-02 at 1.02.55 pm-1.png" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2015 01 02 at 1.02.55 PM"></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/democrats-think-last-year-was-great-republicans-think-it-was-terrible-2015-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/holly-hobby-lobby-conservative-twitter-rockstar-2014-7How A Suburban Mom Became A Conservative Twitter Rockstar http://www.businessinsider.com/holly-hobby-lobby-conservative-twitter-rockstar-2014-7
Tue, 22 Jul 2014 09:00:00 -0400Julia Cannon
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/53c59826eab8ea7b0b359b0e-367-275/holly-fisher.jpeg" border="0" alt="Holly Fisher" width="367" height="275" /></p><p></p>
<p>Holly Fisher's route to conservative internet stardom began in the parking lot of a mall in Barboursville, West Virginia.</p>
<p>Fisher, a mother of three, told Business Insider she was driving through the local Chick-fil-A with her husband when he noticed the "totally right winger" combination of the Pro-Life shirt she was wearing and the Chick-fil-A cup in her hand.</p>
<p>The couple added the Hobby Lobby store across the parking lot as the backdrop, and the conservative trifecta was complete. They took a picture for Fisher to post to her Twitter followers and sent it out July 1, one day after the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court ruling, which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hobby-lobby-decision-obamacare-contraception-mandate-2014-6">determined privately held corporations could not be mandated to provide contraception for their employees</a>.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>ATTENTION LIBERALS: do NOT look at this picture. Your head will most likely explode. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HobbyLobby?src=hash">#HobbyLobby</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UniteBlue?src=hash">#UniteBlue</a> <a href="http://t.co/uAIZji25vS">pic.twitter.com/uAIZji25vS</a></p>
&mdash; Holly Fisher (@HollyRFisher) <a href="https://twitter.com/HollyRFisher/statuses/484111186880114688">July 1, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script>
<p>The tweet went viral. Fisher, who works as a political consultant on local campaigns, had been <a href="https://twitter.com/HollyRFisher">tweeting</a> and <a href="http://hashtagholly.blogspot.com/">blogging</a> about her views for years, and she already had more than 20,000 followers, but the Hobby Lobby tweet caused her online persona to explode in popularity. Fisher more than doubled her online audience after the post and, as of this writing, she had more than 46,500 followers.</p>
<p>On July 4, Fisher tweeted again. This post, Fisher says, finished the job of the first. The caption says it all:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Biggest complaint I'm getting about my <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HobbyLobby?src=hash">#HobbyLobby</a> pic is there's no gun, bible, or flag. Tried to make up for it 😉 <a href="http://t.co/YneQ9Dkkxi">pic.twitter.com/YneQ9Dkkxi</a></p>
&mdash; Holly Fisher (@HollyRFisher) <a href="https://twitter.com/HollyRFisher/statuses/485096708666175488">July 4, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script>
<p>Both the right and the left reacted to Fisher's posts. Liberals dubbed her&nbsp;<a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/07/holly-hobby-lobby-new-face-of-american-taliban/">"the new face of the American Taliban,"</a> "jihad Barbie" and <a href="http://uproxx.com/webculture/2014/07/meet-the-hobby-lobby-mega-troll-whos-making-liberal-heads-explode/">"Hobby Lobby mega-troll,"</a> among other monikers, and conservatives created the hashtag #IStandWithHolly, which has been used more than 4,000 times since the media craze began. Fisher also launched a media blitz, appearing on <a href="http://www.nranews.com/cam/video/holly-fisher-mom-under-fire-for-twitter-pics/list/cam-and-co-feature">NRA News</a> and <a href="http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/07/09/mom-holly-fisher-attacked-social-media-after-posting-photo-flag-gun-and-bible">Fox &amp; Friends</a>, among others. She told Business Insider she had been approached with other TV offers and even encouraged to run for office.</p>
<p>After suddenly finding herself in the spotlight, Fisher <a href="http://www.woai.com/onair/the-joe-pags-show-10/holly-hobby-lobby-fisher-got-death-12537797">told radio host Joe Pagliarulo</a> she thought it "would be a funny little thing with [her] Twitter followers, but ... never thought this would happen." However, Fisher's instant celebrity might not be a surprise to longtime observers of the political landscape. Fisher rode into the spotlight atop a wave of digital conservative activism that has been surging for some time.</p>
<p>Erick Erickson, host of the Erick Erickson show and Editor-In-Chief of RedState.com, has seen the trend firsthand. He told Business Insider that when RedState, now a popular conservative news site, launched a decade ago, the company struggled to "build an online community of conservative activists." Since then, things have changed, and Erickson now sits atop a veritable blog empire that, <a href="https://www.quantcast.com/redstate.com?qcLocale=en_US">according to the analytics site Quantcast</a>, has more than 1.3 million readers each month.</p>
<p>"In the past two years, I've seen Twitter bring people together across demographics, states and backgrounds to form communities ... in a way not possible in the past," Erickson said. "A&nbsp;lot of these people are disenchanted with the political parties overall and with institutional, establishment conservatism. Without a candidate to rally around for office, grassroots activists are rallying around each other in a sense of community that wasn't possible just a few years ago."</p>
<p>Erickson also suggested that the online conservative movement may be outstripping liberals' digital efforts, saying "conservatives are more active on Twitter than liberals."</p>
<p>The epicenter of this digital community is the hashtag #TCOT (top conservatives on twitter). In just 30 minutes on Tuesday afternoon, the hashtag was used 1,500 times, a rate of about 72,000 times a day. Many of these activists stand primarily on social issues like gun control, religious freedom, and traditional marriage.&nbsp;</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53cd46efeab8eac10e712761-598-336/hollyhobbylobby.jpg" border="0" alt="HollyFishergun" width="480" /></p>
<p>Fisher is clearly a product of this Twitter-fueled brand of conservative activism. In fact, when asked if there were any political figures she saw as role models, Fisher cited two conservative pundits who have been pioneers in the online space &ndash; Michelle Malkin and Dana Loesch, who together have nearly 1 million Twitter followers.</p>
<p>Malkin also sees Fisher as part of this growing community of hashtag conservatives.</p>
<p>"Like hundreds and hundreds of thousands of other engaged conservative Twitter users, she uses social media to share links, squash false narratives, and assert her principles," Malkin said of Fisher in an email to Business Insider. "And like a growing movement of conservatives online, she's unafraid to battle opponents and unintimidated by left-wing sexism, misogyny, and threats."</p>
<p>Malkin described the social media-centric conservative activists as "filling a massive void" left by mainstream Republicans in Washington.</p>
<p>"Grassroots conservative activism online is filling a massive void left by establishment GOP strategists and consultants who poll-test and focus-group everything to death before making a move. [It]&nbsp;enables gifted communicators and enterprising conservative users outside the Beltway -- who don't have cable TV contracts or political jobs and don't want them -- to make their voices heard," Malkin said.</p>
<p>Indeed, Fisher has found the internet is the perfect venue for her to find a community of others who agree with conservative positions on social issues that may not be seen as politically correct outside of the online bubble. As a woman, Fisher described social media as an opportunity for her to challenge the "liberal-young-woman" image.</p>
<p>"I've had thousands of 18-19, early 20-year-old girls send me messages over the last week, thanking me for what I'm doing," Fisher said. "They tell me they're afraid to admit they have these pro-life, traditional, conservative values just because it's not popular right now for women to be conservative, because then you're a bigot; you're a racist; you're a homophobe.&nbsp;I think if we refuse to listen to these people who tell us to sit down and shut up, we can continue to get more people to find the courage to take a stand."</p>
<p>Fisher and her fellow online conservative activists are not satisfied with the conservative Republicans in Washington. When asked about how she felt regarding conservative activity coming from the Hill, Fisher said she was "not impressed."</p>
<p>"There are very few people in Congress right now who don't sell out. I don't think very many of them stick to their values. You have people like Ted Cruz, who stick to their guns, and he's seen as an extremist," Fisher said.</p>
<p>Josh Riddle, co-founder of the <a href="https://twitter.com/YoungCons">Twitter account and blog YoungCons</a>, has experienced the growth of the hashtag conservatism firsthand. Riddle and his now business partner, David Rufful, launched their Twitter account while in college. They graduated from Dartmouth two years ago and had about 3,000 Twitter followers as of the November 2012 election. Less than two years later, they have a fully functioning website and more than 61,500 followers on Twitter.</p>
<p>Riddle attributed the growth of conservative social media activism to the fact young conservatives were looking for Republicans they could trust.</p>
<p>"The market is huge. People are desperate for conservatives whose messages they can share with their friends. Young conservatives are looking for something different than what is going on in Washington and something different from what is portrayed constantly in the media. They want conservatives who are unashamed and to know they're not the weirdo that pop culture wants to label them as," Riddle said.</p>
<p>The vacuum that has left young conservatives turning to Twitter to find likeminded leaders may have something to do with the waning power of the movement that defined grassroots conservative activism for the first few years of the Obama administration &ndash;&nbsp;the Tea Party. A <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/168917/four-years-gop-support-tea-party-down.aspx">Gallup poll</a> from May 2014 found nationwide support for the Tea Party down to 22%. The poll also found that just 41% of conservatives now support the movement, down from 61% in 2010.</p>
<p>When asked about the state of the Tea Party, Fisher said that while she supported some of their messages, "they're&nbsp;definitely losing steam."</p>
<p>"The online conservative movement is seeing more and more people speaking up and finding their voice, and this trend will continue to grow," Fisher said.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53cd480f69beddeb61af9a08-599-630/hollypaulryan.jpg" border="0" alt="HollyFisherPaulRyan" width="480" /></p>
<p>Emory-based political scientist Alan Abramowitz pegged the decline of the Tea Party to efforts by the mainstream GOP to fend off primary challenges from rivals supported by the grassroots.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"Since 2010, there has been a concerted effort among establishment Republicans and business groups aligned with republicans to go after the Tea Party," Abramowitz said.</p>
<p>However, rather than annihilating the Tea Party, Abramowitz argued the very establishment that sought to remove them from the spotlight had actually brought them into the GOP.</p>
<p>"The Republican establishment has been able to hang on in many of these races by adopting the ideas of the Tea Party. If you look at what these people are running on, take establishment-type Republicans [David Perdue and Jack Kingston] in Georgia, you see they're catering towards the right side of the party," Abramowitz said.</p>
<p>Whatever the cause, for the Tea Party's poor performance in the polls and the 2012 elections, there's no question that there is still a community of conservative activists eager to find an alternative to the Republican establishment. Tabitha Hale, a conservative blogger, said that many Tea Party supporters felt adrift after their recent failures.</p>
<p>"Most of these people are volunteers," Hale said. "They put in a ton of energy, and their own money, and for many of them it felt like their goal wasn't accomplished after the losses. That's a tough blow to recover from."&nbsp;</p>
<p>And it increasingly seems many of these conservative activists could find a new community and perhaps even new leaders online. Fisher certainly seems eager to build a larger movement after her brush with viral fame. She told us she will start with some work for 1 Million Moms Against Gun Control and is developing a more detailed business plan with her husband, David, and friend Veronica Lewis, whom she originally met on Twitter. Fisher said the model would "begin online, and will focus on conservative marketing." Her goal is to "provide a platform for conservatives to speak out. We want them to know they are not alone." However, she also would be open to working with more traditional mediums.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed being on 'Fox &amp; Friends.' It was crazy," Fisher said. "So yeah, if I ever got the right opportunity to go on TV, I would definitely do it."</p>
<p>In the meantime, Fisher has a warning for her critics &ndash; she and her fellow hashtag conservatives are here to stay.</p>
<p>"I see myself being a voice for the conservative movement. Everyone keeps telling me, 'Your 15 minutes is almost up. No one will remember you in a few months.'&nbsp;I am here to tell them: I'm not going away," Fisher said. "This conservative movement isn't going away. It's only going to get stronger, and I'm going to make sure of that."</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/holly-hobby-lobby-conservative-twitter-rockstar-2014-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/ex-im-bank-victory-tea-party-2014-6The Tea Party Is On The Verge Of Its Biggest-Ever Victory In Washingtonhttp://www.businessinsider.com/ex-im-bank-victory-tea-party-2014-6
Tue, 24 Jun 2014 09:56:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/53a97d6269bedd8142ebe3fa-1200-800/ap13061903979.jpg" border="0" alt="Tea Party" /></p><p>Since it swept into Congress during the 2010 wave elections, the Tea Party has claimed small victories in blocking President Obama's legislative priorities and extracting spending cuts through debt-ceiling ceasefires.</p>
<p>But if things go their way this fall, they would get <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/export-import-bank-reauthorization-fight-2014-6" target="_blank">their first true scalp: the Export-Import bank</a>.</p>
<p>Reinvigorated by the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-dave-brat-economy-debt-ceiling-2014-6" target="_blank">GOP primary loss of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor</a>, the Tea Party is on the verge of claiming perhaps its biggest policy victory in Washington. Its victim would be an institution that has existed for 80 years and far beyond the Obama era &mdash; since the New Deal era of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"It would be a huge victory, not only within the context of the Obama era but in terms of efforts to unwind the New Deal," said Dan Holler, the communications director of Heritage Action, which supports letting the bank's charter expire at a Sept. 30 deadline.</p>
<p>Conservatives began moving against the Ex-Im Bank in 2012, when its reauthorization received the fewest votes since the administration of President Nixon. But two recent events elevated the Tea Party's standing in the battle &mdash; the loss of Cantor, a supporter of the bank and a key broker in a the 2012 deal to reauthorize its charter, and the promotion of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California), who is set to become the House Majority Leader in August.</p>
<p>McCarthy's move up means Ex-Im Bank opponents will have friends in the No. 2 and No. 3 House GOP slots &mdash; both McCarthy and incoming House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) are opposed to reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank's charter.</p>
<p>For years, the Tea Party movement has railed against "cronyism" and "corporate welfare." Now, the movement has found something to point to as an example.</p>
<p><span>"We had this sea change in 2012 where people saw the bank as this perfect example of everything that's wrong with Washington," Holler told Business Insider on Monday, referring to the 93 votes against the bank's reauthorization back then.</span><span><br /></span></p>
<p><span><span>"You can have big companies going to this bank, which is backed by taxpayers, and using this bank to help themselves. This isn't the proper role of the federal government. We're kind of on the hook here like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, if things go wrong."</span><span><br /></span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Chris Krueger, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities who has been following the Ex-Im Bank fight, said a win from the Tea Party would be their most significant win since the disastrous plunge into federal government shutdown last year &mdash; if not their biggest yet.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"They have legislative momentum again," Krueger said in an email. "[But] you<span>&nbsp;have to give them credit for sequester and holding the line on sequester."</span></span></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/export-import-bank-reauthorization-fight-2014-6" >Big business is freaking out about the death of the Import-Export bank</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ex-im-bank-victory-tea-party-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-steakhouse-spending-2014-6The Amount Of Money Eric Cantor's Campaign Spent On Steakhouses Says It Allhttp://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-steakhouse-spending-2014-6
Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:45:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5398333569bedd833be9535e-1200-858/rtx14l53.jpg" border="0" alt="cantor bohner" /></p><p>House Majority Leader Eric Cantor <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loses-in-gop-primary-2014-6" target="_blank">suffered the most stunning defeat in a generation on Tuesday night</a>&nbsp;at the hands of an underfunded challenger whom he outspent by more than 25-to-1.&nbsp;</p>
<p>How big was the spending disparity between the two candidates? Cantor's campaign spent more at steakhouses than his challenger, economics professor Dave Brat, spent on his entire campaign, a mind-boggling stat that was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/cantors-loss-a-bad-omen-for-moderates.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss&amp;smid=tw-thecaucus" target="_blank">first noted by The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>The Cantor campaign's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/expend.php?cycle=2014&amp;cid=N00013131&amp;type=I" target="_blank">expenditures</a>, as recorded by the Center for Responsive Politics,&nbsp;show it spent $168,637 at Bobby Van's and BLT Steak as of May 21.</p>
<p>Brat's campaign spent just $122,793 overall through that date.</p>
<p>Cantor's loss sent shockwaves through the political world because it defied much political convention &mdash; incumbents typically have a big edge toward getting re-elected, especially for someone with as high a standing as Cantor. There was no polling to suggest Cantor was in trouble. But to guard against even a close outcome, Cantor's campaign spent enormously.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>"There is a lot of bad blood with conservatives who feel like he has repeatedly made them promises and betrayed them; constituent services that were run for Washington lobbyists, not actual citizens of the district; a very heavy-handed staff that was hard for constituents to deal with and for conservatives to reason with; and he took his eye off the prize," Erick Erickson, the editor in chief of the conservative website RedState, told Business Insider in an email Tuesday night. </span></p>
<p><span>"He was looking at the Speaker's chair, not his own."</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-immigration-reform-is-dead-2014-6" >IT'S OFFICIAL: Immigration Reform Is Dead</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-steakhouse-spending-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-majority-leader-kevin-mccarthy-2014-6Days After Their Biggest Win In A Generation, The Tea Party Might Get Shut Out Of Their Real Chancehttp://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-majority-leader-kevin-mccarthy-2014-6
Sat, 14 Jun 2014 08:00:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/539b752169bedd335b19c0cf-1200-924/eric-cantor-kevin-mccarthy-6.jpg" border="0" alt="Eric Cantor Kevin McCarthy" /></p><p>On Tuesday night, the Tea Party scored the biggest upset <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loses-in-gop-primary-2014-6" target="_blank">win over a sitting politician in at least a decade</a>. However, that victory may have actually cost grassroots conservatives a chance to see their ideals reflected in congressional leadership.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Conservatives were emboldened by the primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by his Tea Party-backed challenger Dave Brat Tuesday.</p>
<p>"This is just the beginning," one House GOP aide told Business Insider on Wednesday.</p>
<p>In the span of just 48 hours, though, conservatives watched as the race to replace Cantor as leader largely fell out of their hands. By Thursday night, both of the candidates aligned with the more conservative side of the House Republican caucus &mdash; Texas Reps. Pete Sessions and Jeb Hensarling &mdash; had dropped out of the race.</p>
<p>That left Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the overwhelming favorite to become the next Cantor and take the House's number two spot. And in a twist, McCarthy might be even more moderate than the man he's replacing. For one thing, McCarthy <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/kevin-mccarthy-immigration-102473.html" target="_blank">supports a path</a> to legal status for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, an issue <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-immigration-reform-is-dead-2014-6" target="_blank">that was perceived as a death knell for Cantor</a>.</p>
<p>For another, McCarthy's conservative group ratings place him to the left of Cantor.&nbsp;<span>The&nbsp;</span>American Conservative Union<span>&nbsp;gave McCarthy a 72% rating, compared with Cantor's 84%. The Club for Growth gave Cantor a 68% mark, compared with only 53% for McCarthy. And Heritage Action has McCarthy at just 42%, compared with 53% for Cantor.</span><span><br /></span></p>
<p><span><span>One prominent conservative involved in majority-leader discussions told Business Insider there was "deep, deep disappointment" among the grassroots due to the lack of conservative House members willing to challenge McCarthy.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>"A lot of enthusiasm that built up&nbsp;</span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_951996175"><span class="aQJ">Tuesday</span></span><span>&nbsp;night is gone," they said.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>House conservatives disgruntled with leadership got a late entry from Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) on Friday. However, Labrador isn't as strong a candidate as Sessions or especially Hensarling. Furthermore, Labrador's late arrival gave McCarthy a four-day head start. McCarthy is already expected to have locked up more than the 120 votes needed to win the spot. </span></span></p>
<p><span>And some of the staunchest House conservatives aren't even thrilled with Labrador's entry. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveKingIA/status/477488701325328387" target="_blank">blasted</a>&nbsp;Labrador on Friday for being "pro-amnesty." (Labrador was part of a "Gang of Eight" on immigration reform in the House, but backed out and has said he doesn't think any immigration legislation should pass this year.)</span></p>
<p><span>The conservative who spoke to Business Insider also suggested Labrador's entry is mostly symbolic.</span></p>
<p><span>"<span>The thinking right now is that the conservatives want to put up conservatives for the positions, whether they win or not, just to plant a flag and not let the heirs apparent claim the conservative mantle for themselves," the person said.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The most likely spot where a more conservative candidate could enter leadership is through the majority whip position, which is currently held by McCarthy. However, even in that race, there's a growing sense the Tea Party-aligned wing could be shut out.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>In a fight between Reps. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Peter Roskam (R-IL), Stutzman and Scalise could split the conservative votes, leaving Roskam as the beneficiary.&nbsp;</span><span><br /></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>"That," another House GOP aide said, "is definitely a concern."</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>Said another: "Everything old is new again."</span></span></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-majority-leader-kevin-mccarthy-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-republican-civil-war-is-just-getting-started-2014-6The Republican Civil War Is Just Getting Started ...http://www.businessinsider.com/the-republican-civil-war-is-just-getting-started-2014-6
Thu, 12 Jun 2014 06:25:05 -0400Michael Mathes
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5267f0a4ecad04f947d73520-1200-750/ap090415028043.jpg" border="0" alt="tea party tea" /></p><p>The Tea Party keeps jolting American politics, with Republicans struggling Wednesday to grasp implications of the ouster of one of their political masters who despite his stature failed to crush an insurrection from within.</p>
<p>House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's loss in Virginia's Republican primary a day earlier to a virtual unknown, Tea Party-backed economics professor Dave Brat, was a Grade-A political bombshell, the biggest shockwave to course through Congress in years.</p>
<p>Whether the upset in a single congressional district can re-energize a conservative grass-roots movement thought to be on the ropes this year remains a debate among analysts.</p>
<p>But ousting a majority leader from within his own ranks is rare, and the reverberations have jolted Washington, where Republicans have been seeking a united front in opposing policies of President Barack Obama.</p>
<h3>Base is alive and well</h3>
<p>"This election should be a reminder to all in Congress &ndash;- Republicans and Democrats alike &ndash;- that the conservative base is alive and well," crowed Senator Ted Cruz, widely seen as the congressional flagbearer of the movement.</p>
<p>Cantor, 51, was waiting in the wings to eventually take the top job from House Speaker John Boehner, who had worked at length to tamp down the various conservative uprisings that bubbled since 2010 when an anti-incumbency wave brought dozens of Tea Party-backed candidates into Congress.</p>
<p>Instead of continuing on course, Cantor will resign his leadership post on July 31, while the Republican Party's most conservative faction licks its lips at the prospect of finally winning a precious spot in leadership.</p>
<p>A single battle victory does not win a civil war, however. The anti-tax, small-government Tea Party movement has actually lost the vast majority of primary challenges against Republican incumbents it has made this election cycle.</p>
<p>"The establishment is winning, and winning quite consistently," with research showing the Tea Party "is not doing that well in national terms," John Hudak, an expert at The Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank, told AFP.</p>
<p>Cantor may have proved the Tea Party movement can still take down trophy prey, but "I think drawing lessons about what it means for Republicans generally is a bit overstated," Hudak added.</p>
<h3>Further right than Cantor?</h3>
<p>Congressman Peter King nevertheless repeated his warning that the party was being "hijacked" by the radical right, which he has accused in the past of purposely shutting down government last year over a fiscal confrontation.</p>
<p>But while Cantor himself was treated by many as the right-wing's trusted figure in the GOP's top echelons, "obviously they want it to go further (to the right) than Eric, who is 100 percent conservative," King said.</p>
<p>House Republican John Fleming said scandals rocking Washington in recent months, including accusations of mismanagement at military veterans medical facilities, is fueling outrage.</p>
<p>"Part of what we're seeing here is the fact that our constituents are very angry at this administration... and they're angry at us and our leadership, probably because we're not stopping them," Fleming said.</p>
<p>"They are ready to go after anybody that represents Washington. There is very much of an anti-incumbent fever now."</p>
<p>Associate Professor Christopher Parker at the University of Washington said Republican leaders like Senator Mitch McConnell, who survived a major Tea Party challenge last month, have downplayed the "civil war" the establishment finds itself in.</p>
<p>"What surprises me is how often the American press wants to declare that everything is great, that there's no longer a civil war and the establishment has reasserted itself," Parker said.</p>
<p>Tea Party support has remained stable at about 22 percent of the electorate, Parker said, while the movement's major national groups have seen membership double since 2010.</p>
<p>Cantor's defeat has clearly inspired Tea Party candidates in some of this year's remaining races.</p>
<p>In Kansas, far-right challenger Milton Wolf aims to unseat Republican incumbent Senator Pat Roberts, whom many accuse of living full time in the Washington suburbs and rarely returning to his home state.</p>
<p>"Eric Cantor isn't the only incumbent from Virginia who is going to lose his primary this year," Wolf said in a statement after Brat's win.</p>
<p>"On August 5th, it's Pat Roberts' turn."<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
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<p>Copyright (2014) AFP. All rights reserved.</p>
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<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="https://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT0xNzBlMDk5ODM3MDExM2I3ZjhlOWQwMTk5N2E1MjhkMiZub25jZT1jY2E1OWRhNC00Mjk5LTQ4NWItYjJjNi03NGVjMGY4MTE2ZjQmcHVibGlzaGVyPTczMGViODZhYjU5ZjBkNDE5MjZhYzY1YjAxZjgzZTJm" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-republican-civil-war-is-just-getting-started-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-lost-a-friend-last-night-2014-6Wall Street Lost A Friend Last Nighthttp://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-lost-a-friend-last-night-2014-6
Wed, 11 Jun 2014 09:01:00 -0400Linette Lopez
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5398536aecad04521d989518-1200-924/eric-cantor-stock-exchange-3.png" border="0" alt="eric cantor stock exchange" /></p><p>Last night, when Eric Cantor lost his seat as House Majority Leader, Wall Street lost a buddy.</p>
<p>The kind of guy who bankers could hang out with on K-Street, and then take to a steakhouse <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/cantors-loss-a-bad-omen-for-moderates.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0">(Cantor spent </a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/cantors-loss-a-bad-omen-for-moderates.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0">$168,637</a> on them during his campaign, after all).</p>
<p>The kind of guy the industry could throw <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00013131&amp;cycle=2014">$1.2 million dollars in 2013 and 2014.</a></p>
<p>But perhaps more important than any of that, when Cantor lost, Wall Street was yet again reminded that it faces the horrible prospect of being attacked by populists on the left and the right.</p>
<p>Cantor lost to a little-known economics professor and Ayn Rand disciple named Dave Brat. In Brat's victory speech, he might as well have called out The Street by name.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I will fight to end crony capitalist programs that benefit the rich and powerful,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>He made his views clear on the campaign trail as well.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/columnists-blogs/guest-columnists/brat-a-challenger-for-the-th-district/article_20886f1d-bae2-5764-94bc-52494877c27a.html"></a> "I am running against Cantor because he does not represent the citizens of the 7th District, but rather large corporations seeking insider deals, crony bailouts and a constant supply of low-wage workers,&rdquo; he wrote in an <a href="http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/columnists-blogs/guest-columnists/brat-a-challenger-for-the-th-district/article_20886f1d-bae2-5764-94bc-52494877c27a.html">op-ed in The Times Dispatch.</a></p>
<p>He went on: "The truth is, Cantor has voted to raise the debt ceiling 10 times... and is the leading force in the House pushing for amnesty for illegal immigrants. He also voted for TARP... The debt is over $17 trillion and the unfunded liabilities are over $127 trillion, all under Cantor&rsquo;s leadership. Last quarter the economy shrank by 1 percent. We are off course. We need positive free-market leadership."</p>
<p>This is "free-market" Tea Party talk,&nbsp; not "free-market" Wall Street talk. Wall Street loved TARP. It wants a more liberal stance on immigration, and it absolutely does not want another silly, pointless battle over the debt ceiling.</p>
<p>Cantor on the other hand. Now that guy was a friend. A source told <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/2014-virginia-primary-wall-street-eric-cantor-loss-107696.html">Politico</a> that he was &ldquo;one of the few remaining House Republicans who understood the complicated and nuanced issues facing the financial services community."</p>
<p>And when <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-st-donors-ditched-dave-camp-2014-2">Republican Dave Camp</a> turned on the Street over carried interest &mdash; a private equity tax loophole &mdash; Cantor reportedly went to bat for his friends, attacking Camp. He had to. Cantor was the top recipient of political donations from private equity and the finance industry in 2013 and 2014 according to the Center for Responsive Politics, after all.</p>
<p>A few months ago, when all this primary hullabaloo started, it seemed like the Tea Party was dead. Wall Street breathed a sigh of belief. People often forget that the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street had some very key beliefs in common.</p>
<p>Remember in 2011 when people were passing around this Venn Diagram from blogger <span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, sans-serif; font-size: 18.88888931274414px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 28.500001907348633px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: #ffffff;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"></span></span><a href="http://howconservativesdrovemeaway.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-vs-tea-party.html">James Sinclair?</a></p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53985074ecad048014989518-572-429/occupy-wall-street-tea-party-venn-diagram.png" border="0" alt="occupy wall street tea party venn diagram" width="800" /></p>
<p>Now take that all in.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-lost-a-friend-last-night-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-steakhouse-spending-2014-6The Amount Of Money Eric Cantor's Campaign Spent On Steakhouses Says It Allhttp://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-steakhouse-spending-2014-6
Wed, 11 Jun 2014 07:57:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5398333569bedd833be9535e-1200-858/rtx14l53.jpg" border="0" alt="cantor bohner" /></p><p>House Majority Leader Eric Cantor <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loses-in-gop-primary-2014-6" target="_blank">suffered the most stunning defeat in a generation on Tuesday night</a>&nbsp;at the hands of an underfunded challenger whom he outspent by more than 25-to-1.&nbsp;</p>
<p>How big was the spending disparity between the two candidates? Cantor's campaign spent more at steakhouses than his challenger, economics professor Dave Brat, spent on his entire campaign, a mind-boggling stat that was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/cantors-loss-a-bad-omen-for-moderates.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss&amp;smid=tw-thecaucus" target="_blank">first noted by The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>The Cantor campaign's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/expend.php?cycle=2014&amp;cid=N00013131&amp;type=I" target="_blank">expenditures</a>, as recorded by the Center for Responsive Politics,&nbsp;show it spent $168,637 at Bobby Van's and BLT Steak as of May 21.</p>
<p>Brat's campaign spent just $122,793 overall through that date.</p>
<p>Cantor's loss sent shockwaves through the political world because it defied much political convention &mdash; incumbents typically have a big edge toward getting re-elected, especially for someone with as high a standing as Cantor. There was no polling to suggest Cantor was in trouble. But to guard against even a close outcome, Cantor's campaign spent enormously.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>"There is a lot of bad blood with conservatives who feel like he has repeatedly made them promises and betrayed them; constituent services that were run for Washington lobbyists, not actual citizens of the district; a very heavy-handed staff that was hard for constituents to deal with and for conservatives to reason with; and he took his eye off the prize," Erick Erickson, the editor in chief of the conservative website RedState, told Business Insider in an email Tuesday night. </span></p>
<p><span>"He was looking at the Speaker's chair, not his own."</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-immigration-reform-is-dead-2014-6" >IT'S OFFICIAL: Immigration Reform Is Dead</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-loss-steakhouse-spending-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/harry-reid-ethics-complaint-publicity-stunt-2014-6Harry Reid Calls Ethics Complaint Against Him A 'Frivolous Publicity Stunt'http://www.businessinsider.com/harry-reid-ethics-complaint-publicity-stunt-2014-6
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 15:49:50 -0400Colin Campbell
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/538cca8d69bedd5f12fdc371-480-/harry-reid-happy-2.jpg" border="0" alt="Harry Reid Happy" width="480" /></p><p>Majority Leader Harry Reid swatted away an ethics complaint a conservative group made against him Monday.</p>
<p><span>The Nevada Democrat's office responded to a&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-tea-party-group-harry-reid-broke-rules-koch-brothers-2014-6">complaint against Reid</a> that his ongoing offensive against the Koch Brothers could be a violation of Senate rules by doubling down on the senator's criticism of the billionaire megadonors. Reid's office also blasted the group, the Tea Party Patriots, as "a publicity-seeking, extremist Tea Party group" beholden to Koch interests.</p>
<p>"We are shocked &ndash; shocked! &ndash; that a publicity-seeking, extremist Tea Party group which has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Koch brothers&rsquo; secret bank would attempt a frivolous publicity stunt to distract from the Kochs' efforts to rig the system for billionaires like themselves," Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson told Business Insider in an email.</p>
<p>The Tea Party Patriots accused Reid of improperly mixing his government activity with partisan attacks on David and Charles Koch, who have heavily funded conservative candidates and campaigns. According <a href="http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/koch">to Pro Publica</a>, Tea Party Patriots received $200,000 from the Koch-associated Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce.</p>
<p>Jentleson said the complaint was part of a larger attempt to "silence" his boss' criticism of unlimited outside spending in elections.</p>
<p>"The shadowy, billionaire Koch brothers are pulling out all the stops to get Senator Reid to stop shining a light on their efforts to buy our democracy, but he will not be silenced," he argued.</p>
<p>The Tea Party Patriots did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/harry-reid-ethics-complaint-publicity-stunt-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/a-tea-party-group-harry-reid-broke-rules-koch-brothers-2014-6Tea Party Group Claims Harry Reid Broke Senate Rules With His Attack On The Koch Brothers http://www.businessinsider.com/a-tea-party-group-harry-reid-broke-rules-koch-brothers-2014-6
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 14:32:00 -0400Colin Campbell
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/538cab4469bedd4177fdc367-480-/harry-reid-66.jpg" border="0" alt="Harry Reid" width="480" /></p><p>A Tea Party group thinks Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may have broken the rules with his&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/harry-reid-koch-brothers-war-2014-3">aggressive attack on the Koch brothers</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">On Monday, Tea Party Patriots filed a complaint against Reid for allegedly&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">violating Senate rules by using official government channels to promote partisan attacks on billionaire conservative megadonors, Charles and David Koch.</span></p>
<p>The seven-part complaint, which was sent to the Senate's Select Committee on Ethics, cites attacks on the Kochs from the Senate floor and his <a href="http://www.reid.senate.gov/koch-facts#.U4y5ES_zSS4">government website</a>, among other accusations. Reid's actions, the complaint says, "is a blatant example of a powerful Washington figure deciding that it is his&nbsp; prerogative to bring the full weight of his office against private citizens or organizations with whom he disagrees."</p>
<p>Jenny Beth Martin, a Tea Party Patriots cofounder, told Business Insider the complaint was inspired by the federal government's persecution of conservatives. Her group also filed a complaint Monday against Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse for allegedly pushing the federal government to investigate conservative nonprofits.</p>
<p>"After having been targeted by the IRS for several years and seeing the truly chilling effects the IRS has had on speech and the first amendment, we&rsquo;re seeing the same thing happen with Senator Reid and Senator Whitehouse," Martin claimed. She said this week's Senate hearing on political speech &mdash; where both Reid and his Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, will <a href="http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/harry-reid-mitch-mcconnell-to-testify-at-campaign-finance-first-amendment-hearing/?dcz=">reportedly testify </a>&mdash; was also a factor.</p>
<p>Some of the complaint's criticism of Reid mirrors that of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/23/politics/sen-harry-reid-ethics-complaint/">a past GOP complaint</a>, filed by the Republican Party of Louisiana in April. Reid's office, which did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment, dismissed the Louisiana complaint at the time.</p>
<p>"Republicans' blind obedience to the shadowy billionaire Koch brothers is on full display today," Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said in a statement then.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"Nothing says 'Republicans are the party of the top one percent' like lashing out with meritless complaints as a screen to defend the Koch brothers as they rig the system to benefit billionaires like themselves. Sen. Reid will continue to do everything in his power to hold the Koch brothers and their Republican enablers accountable for trying to tilt the playing field in favor of the wealthy and against the middle class."</span></p>
<p>View the Tea Party Patriot's Reid complaint below:</p>
<p><iframe width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/227642926/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="undefined"></iframe></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-tea-party-group-harry-reid-broke-rules-koch-brothers-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/texan-primaries-tea-time-in-texas-2014-5Texas Could Become Even More Conservativehttp://www.businessinsider.com/texan-primaries-tea-time-in-texas-2014-5
Fri, 30 May 2014 17:04:38 -0400Business Insider
<p><em><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5388eeae6bb3f76876fedae9-480-/ap543608934874.jpg" border="0" alt="Dan Patrick " width="480" /></em></p>
<p>It is an odd place to stage a conservative mutiny; conservatives already run everything in Texas.</p>
<p>Republicans hold all major statewide offices and both arms of the state legislature. The Lone Star State has low taxes, light regulations and skimpy public services.</p>
<p>Lefties loathe it; businesses can&rsquo;t wait to move there. So what exactly is the Texan wing of the Tea Party upset about?</p>
<p>Plenty, if this week&rsquo;s primary run-offs are anything to go by. David Dewhurst, the lieutenant-governor, was hoping to remain in office for a fourth term. His biography is not obviously bearded or sandal-wearing: a former air force officer, he has worked for the CIA and made a fortune in finance and ranching.</p>
<p>He favours the death penalty but frowns on taxes and art that insults Jesus. While he has been in office, growth and job creation have been better in Texas than in most other states.</p>
<p>Yet this record was not flinty enough to ward off a primary challenge. His chief rival, Dan Patrick, a state senator, accused Mr Dewhurst of squishiness on the flimsiest of evidence. For example, he claimed that Mr Dewhurst had left the Senate chamber during last summer&rsquo;s debate over a new abortion law to eat steak with a lobbyist.</p>
<p>After several months, Mr Dewhurst broke down: he had indeed gone to a steakhouse that night, although he had eaten chicken. Whether chicken was the trouble, or the storms that swept through Texas on election day and kept voters away from the polls, Mr Patrick won the run-off on May 27th.</p>
<p>A Tea-Party challenger won the Republican nomination for a race for the US House of Representatives, too. John Ratcliffe, a small-town mayor, beat 91-year-old Ralph Hall, the oldest member of Congress.</p>
<p>In the primary for state attorney-general another state senator, Ken Paxton, emblazoned his campaign website with a snapshot he had taken next to US Senator Ted Cruz, a former state solicitor general whose unlikely primary victory two years ago inspired a gaggle of backbench Texan Republicans to revolt.</p>
<p>Mr Paxton attacked his opponent, Dan Branch, for having proposed in 2005 an amendment to an amendment that would have made a pending abortion law slightly less stringent--a grave offence. Mr Paxton won.</p>
<p>The primary election itself, on a cold and even snowy day in March, was a mixed bag for the Tea-infused challengers. Those who forced the establishment candidates into a run-off did better.</p>
<p>Voter turnout in Texas is always tepid; about 10% of registered voters cast ballots in the Republican primary this year. In the run-offs the figure was a little more than half that, and in most of the high-profile races the louder conservative candidate prevailed. Mr Patrick won by a nearly two-to-one margin, and declared it a "mandate".</p>
<p>It was certainly a bitter blow for Mr Dewhurst, who, having served as lieutenant-governor since 2003, is among the Republicans who have been in charge during a decade of economic success that has given millions of Texans the opportunity to ignore state politics altogether.&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But Mr Dewhurst, having at first blamed his defeat on the horrid weather on both election days, ended his speech graciously, by calling on Republicans to move past the pratfalls of the primary season: "We must unite to win in November."</span></p>
<p>United or not, they have little to worry about. In the Democratic run-offs, voters opted for a millionaire dentist as their Senate nominee rather than the woman who proposed to impeach Barack Obama and industrialise the moon.</p>
<p>For agriculture commissioner they settled on a former dairy farmer called Jim Hogan, who had asked voters to Google "Jim Hogan Texas agriculture commissioner" because he had no campaign website.</p>
<p>When contacted by reporters after the run-off results came in, he told them that he was at home making stew. In ordinary-Joe check shirt and baseball cap, he will now face Sid Miller, resplendent in white Stetson, blazer and tie, and already looking as self-satisfied as a Texas Republican should.</p>
<p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist.</p>
<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="https://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT01NDNkOGU4OTFmN2JkMWRlZjFjZmQyOWRmZjYxODBiNyZub25jZT1mMTRjOWM3Ny0xMWQ0LTQ4ODgtYWQ2MS05MjIwNTZmNjczZWMmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/texan-primaries-tea-time-in-texas-2014-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/texan-primaries-tea-time-in-texas-2014-5Texan Primaries: Tea Time In Texashttp://www.businessinsider.com/texan-primaries-tea-time-in-texas-2014-5
Fri, 30 May 2014 16:53:00 -0400
<p><em><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5388eeae6bb3f76876fedae9-480-/ap543608934874.jpg" border="0" alt="Dan Patrick " width="480" /></em></p>
<p>It is an odd place to stage a conservative mutiny; conservatives already run everything in Texas.</p>
<p>Republicans hold all major statewide offices and both arms of the state legislature. The Lone Star State has low taxes, light regulations and skimpy public services.</p>
<p>Lefties loathe it; businesses can&rsquo;t wait to move there. So what exactly is the Texan wing of the Tea Party upset about?</p>
<p>Plenty, if this week&rsquo;s primary run-offs are anything to go by. David Dewhurst, the lieutenant-governor, was hoping to remain in office for a fourth term. His biography is not obviously bearded or sandal-wearing: a former air force officer, he has worked for the CIA and made a fortune in finance and ranching.</p>
<p>He favours the death penalty but frowns on taxes and art that insults Jesus. While he has been in office, growth and job creation have been better in Texas than in most other states.</p>
<p>Yet this record was not flinty enough to ward off a primary challenge. His chief rival, Dan Patrick, a state senator, accused Mr Dewhurst of squishiness on the flimsiest of evidence. For example, he claimed that Mr Dewhurst had left the Senate chamber during last summer&rsquo;s debate over a new abortion law to eat steak with a lobbyist.</p>
<p>After several months, Mr Dewhurst broke down: he had indeed gone to a steakhouse that night, although he had eaten chicken. Whether chicken was the trouble, or the storms that swept through Texas on election day and kept voters away from the polls, Mr Patrick won the run-off on May 27th.</p>
<p>A Tea-Party challenger won the Republican nomination for a race for the US House of Representatives, too. John Ratcliffe, a small-town mayor, beat 91-year-old Ralph Hall, the oldest member of Congress.</p>
<p>In the primary for state attorney-general another state senator, Ken Paxton, emblazoned his campaign website with a snapshot he had taken next to US Senator Ted Cruz, a former state solicitor general whose unlikely primary victory two years ago inspired a gaggle of backbench Texan Republicans to revolt.</p>
<p>Mr Paxton attacked his opponent, Dan Branch, for having proposed in 2005 an amendment to an amendment that would have made a pending abortion law slightly less stringent--a grave offence. Mr Paxton won.</p>
<p>The primary election itself, on a cold and even snowy day in March, was a mixed bag for the Tea-infused challengers. Those who forced the establishment candidates into a run-off did better.</p>
<p>Voter turnout in Texas is always tepid; about 10% of registered voters cast ballots in the Republican primary this year. In the run-offs the figure was a little more than half that, and in most of the high-profile races the louder conservative candidate prevailed. Mr Patrick won by a nearly two-to-one margin, and declared it a "mandate".</p>
<p>It was certainly a bitter blow for Mr Dewhurst, who, having served as lieutenant-governor since 2003, is among the Republicans who have been in charge during a decade of economic success that has given millions of Texans the opportunity to ignore state politics altogether.&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But Mr Dewhurst, having at first blamed his defeat on the horrid weather on both election days, ended his speech graciously, by calling on Republicans to move past the pratfalls of the primary season: "We must unite to win in November."</span></p>
<p>United or not, they have little to worry about. In the Democratic run-offs, voters opted for a millionaire dentist as their Senate nominee rather than the woman who proposed to impeach Barack Obama and industrialise the moon.</p>
<p>For agriculture commissioner they settled on a former dairy farmer called Jim Hogan, who had asked voters to Google "Jim Hogan Texas agriculture commissioner" because he had no campaign website.</p>
<p>When contacted by reporters after the run-off results came in, he told them that he was at home making stew. In ordinary-Joe check shirt and baseball cap, he will now face Sid Miller, resplendent in white Stetson, blazer and tie, and already looking as self-satisfied as a Texas Republican should.</p>
<p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist.</p>
<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="https://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT01NDNkOGU4OTFmN2JkMWRlZjFjZmQyOWRmZjYxODBiNyZub25jZT1mMTRjOWM3Ny0xMWQ0LTQ4ODgtYWQ2MS05MjIwNTZmNjczZWMmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/texan-primaries-tea-time-in-texas-2014-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-win-texas-2014-5The Tea Party Just Won Big In The Texas Primarieshttp://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-win-texas-2014-5
Tue, 27 May 2014 23:45:54 -0400Marice Richter
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/53855b8d69beddda0f08d557-1200-924/ted-cruz-50.jpg" border="0" alt="ted cruz" /></p><p>DALLAS&nbsp;(Reuters) -&nbsp;Texas&nbsp;Republicans aligned with&nbsp;Tea Party&nbsp;darling&nbsp;Ted Cruz&nbsp;were projected to win primary runoffs on Tuesday for two of the state's most powerful posts, while U.S. Representative Ralph Hall, 91, was ousted by a challenger about half his age.</p>
<p>The&nbsp;Tea Party&nbsp;win over established politicians boosts the stature of U.S. Senator Cruz, a possible 2016 Republican presidential contender, and returns some luster to the&nbsp;Tea Party&nbsp;movement after several candidates were defeated by mainstream Republicans in primaries in other states last week.</p>
<p>The Dallas Morning News&nbsp;and other media outlets have projected that&nbsp;Dan Patrick, a state senator backed by Cruz, will win the Republican race for lieutenant governor over incumbent&nbsp;David Dewhurst.</p>
<p>Final results were likely to come out on Wednesday.</p>
<p>State Senator&nbsp;Ken Paxton, also aligned with Cruz, will defeat&nbsp;Dan Branch, a state representative since 2002, in the race for attorney general, according to media projections.</p>
<p>Hall, the oldest serving member of the&nbsp;House of Representatives, lost in a Republican primary runoff election to&nbsp;Tea Party-backed challenger,&nbsp;John Ratcliffe, a former U.S. attorney.</p>
<p>Hall, a World War Two veteran, was first elected to the&nbsp;U.S. House&nbsp;in 1980 from congressional District 4, an area to the northeast of&nbsp;Dallas. He was seeking his 18th term.</p>
<p>The winners of all these races will emerge as the favorites in the general elections in November due to the dominance of Republicans over Democrats in conservative&nbsp;Texas.</p>
<p>The&nbsp;Tea Party&nbsp;movement, considered both conservative and libertarian, advocates for a smaller federal government and tax cuts.</p>
<p>The runoffs are for races where no single candidate crossed the 50 percent threshold in the March 4 primary.</p>
<p>In the race for governor in the state with a $1.4 trillion annual economy, current attorney general,&nbsp;Greg Abbott, easily won the March Republican primary and will face Democrat&nbsp;Wendy Davis, who also won in March.</p>
<p>(Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Paul Tait)</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-win-texas-2014-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-kentucky-georgia-idaho-oregon-primaries-gop-mcconnell-kingston-2014-5The Tea Party Got Clobbered Last Nighthttp://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-kentucky-georgia-idaho-oregon-primaries-gop-mcconnell-kingston-2014-5
Wed, 21 May 2014 08:36:00 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/537c963fecad04802257d111-1073-804/mitch-mcconnell-18.jpg" border="0" alt="Mitch McConnell" /></p><p>Idaho's 2nd Congressional District was supposed to be a proxy battle to set the tone for the establishment vs. grassroots Republican fight of the 2014 midterm elections.</p>
<p>In the end, it hardly ended up being a battle &mdash; like many of the intra-party fights across the country.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, who was running for a ninth term, crushed his Tea Party-aligned challenger, local attorney Bryan Smith. Simpson garnered almost 62% of the vote to Smith's 38.3%.</p>
<p>The race was a costly one in which groups backing both candidates spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in the last few weeks leading up to the Idaho primary, the Club for Growth &mdash; the major group backing Smith &mdash; quietly shifted resources away from Idaho and into the Nebraska Senate race.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has already had success backing a number of establishment candidates, kept pouring money into the race on Simpson's behalf. Over the last month, it ran an ad in Idaho featuring the endorsement of former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.</p>
<p>"This race was a top priority for the Chamber to engage early and locally to support Simpson and highlight his record," said Rob Engstrom, the senior vice president and national political director of the Chamber. "We will continue to stand with him."</p>
<p>Across the rest of the country, the story was the same. In three key Republican battles to determine the party's Senate nominees, establishment-aligned candidates prevailed:</p>
<ul>
<li>Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mitch-mcconnell-matt-bevin-results-wins-alison-lundergan-grimes-2014-5" target="_blank">made quick work of Matt Bevin in Kentucky</a>, grabbing about 60% of the Republican vote.</li>
<li>In Georgia,&nbsp;<span>b</span><span>usinessman David Perdue and the Chamber-backed U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston advanced to a GOP runoff. U.S. Reps. Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey, the r<span>ace's two most flamboyant, conservative Republicans, didn't come close. Not even the Sarah Palin-backed Karen Handel made the runoff.</span></span></li>
<li><span><span>In Oregon, despite a late-breaking scandal that made national headlines over the final few days of the race, neurosurgeon Monica Wehby dispatched of conservative challenger and&nbsp;<span>state Rep. Jason Conger, 50.7-37.1.</span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span><span><span>Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz argued Tuesday night that the results were not indicative of the Tea Party's decline. Rather, she said they proved conservative challengers had successfully pushed the party to the right.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>"<span>Even the candidates purportedly backed by the establishment have been pulled so far to the right that it is a distinction without a difference. The civil war in the Republican Party is over and the Tea Party won," Wasserman Schultz said in a statement.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>But in each primary, the GOP's general-election chances improved &mdash; including a win <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-senate-odds-thom-tillis-election-2014-5" target="_blank">for the establishment in North Carolina two weeks ago</a>. Thus far, the party has avoided nominating any of the "Todd Akin 2.0" candidates insiders feared would hamper their chances at retaking control of the Senate. They need to swing six seats to do so, a goal that looks increasingly attainable.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>For Democrats, it might be time to panic.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><span>"Election results last night&nbsp;were pretty much as expected &mdash; the GOP has crushed the Tea Party, and&nbsp;the Democrats can no longer count on running against right wing 'exotics,'" said Greg Valliere, the chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>The party establishment wasn't shy in gloating about its big win Tuesday night. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-stockman-campaign-texas-senate-primary-john-cornyn-2014-3" target="_blank">faced a disastrous primary challenge earlier this year</a>, tweeted back at an online activist who said the conservative movement's "only mistake" was not running grassroots Republican Katrina Pierson against Cornyn:</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/537c9d3ceab8ea0f0cdd357d-624-586/screen shot 2014-05-21 at 8.33.21 am.png" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2014 05 21 at 8.33.21 AM" /><br /></span></span></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-with-ads-and-foot-soldiers-republican-establishment-squeezes-tea-party-2014-18#ixzz32M6oD44L" >The Republican Establishment Is Successfully Squeezing The Tea Party</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tea-party-kentucky-georgia-idaho-oregon-primaries-gop-mcconnell-kingston-2014-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/kentucky-georgia-oregon-primaries-mcconnell-bevin-polls-2014-5It Looks Like The Tea Party Is Going To Completely Whiff Tonighthttp://www.businessinsider.com/kentucky-georgia-oregon-primaries-mcconnell-bevin-polls-2014-5
Tue, 20 May 2014 18:51:14 -0400Brett LoGiurato
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/50a2d3fa69bedd7d2a000003-1200-858/155295344.jpg" border="0" alt="GOP Republicans Tea Party RNC" /></p><p>The latest significant crop of primary election contests Tuesday night is poised to be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-senate-odds-thom-tillis-election-2014-5" target="_blank">another big win for the Republican establishment</a>&nbsp;in its ongoing struggle against Tea Party grassroots insurgents.</p>
<p>In two key Senate races in Kentucky and Georgia, the preferred candidates of the mainstream GOP are set to advance, putting the party in better position to retake control of the U.S. Senate.</p>
<p>In Kentucky, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mitch-mcconnell-matt-bevin-poll-2014-5" target="_blank">Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell looks set to trounce</a>&nbsp;Tea Party favorite Matt Bevin, perhaps by upwards of 20 points. And in Georgia, the race's two most flamboyant, conservative Republicans, <span>Reps. Paul Broun or Phil Gingrey,</span>&nbsp;have faded in recent weeks. The latest polling suggests neither Broun or Gingrey will advance past the candidates favored by the establishment.</p>
<p>Outside groups have poured in millions on behalf of conservatives in the Kentucky and Georgia races. But these candidates never latched on with the broader Republican electorate.</p>
<p><span>"I think Bevin made the mistake a lot of candidates make. He didn't define himself early," Erick Erickson, the editor of RedState and a supporter of Bevin, told Business Insider in an email.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>"McConnell has popularity below 50% in Kentucky. Bevin needed to make the case why he's a good person and viable alternative. He didn't even start until well after the McConnell campaign had defined him and even then mostly stuck to an anti-McConnell message instead of a pro-Bevin message."</span></p>
<p><span>And now, after these bruising intra-party fights, Democrats' two best pickup opportunities on GOP Senate seats will be in Kentucky and Georgia. McConnell's expected win sets up a highly-anticipated heavyweight matchup between him and Democratic Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. </span></p>
<p><span>In Georgia, b<span>usinessman David Perdue, U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston and former Secretary of State Karen Handel are fighting for the top-two spots in a post-primary runoff. (A runoff is required if no candidate receives 50% of the vote, and no candidate in Georgia has polled above 30% lately.) One of them will face Democrat Michelle Nunn. Many observers say Republicans will fare far better against Nunn with Perdue or Handel than they would have with the conservative hopefuls, Broun and Gingrey, who have been known to make mistakes.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>And along with the expected Senate losses, conservative groups could be completely shut out of the win column Tuesday night&nbsp;<span>in two high-profile House races in Idaho and Pennsylvania.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>The grassroots group Club for Growth made Idaho's Second District a focal point, and as a result, it <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/idaho-mike-simpson-bryan-smith-95402.html" target="_blank">has been dubbed "ground zero"</a> for the grassroots vs. establishment fight. Club for Growth spent more than $700,000 in that race for ads blasting U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson and supporting his intra-party challenger, local attorney Bryan Smith.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span>Simpson was backed, however, by the quintessential GOP establishment group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has already found a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-senate-odds-thom-tillis-election-2014-5" target="_blank">high rate of success with its preferred candidates</a>. He also received a late endorsement from former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. And in the last month, the Club for Growth has gone silent. It hasn't bought an ad in the race since April 22. A Club for Growth spokesman did not respond to a request for comment as to why, but&nbsp;<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/05/12/club-for-growth-cuts-spending-in-contested-idaho-gop-primary/" target="_blank">others have interpreted it as a sign of concession</a>.</span></p>
<p><span>These expected defeats for the conservative grassroots come on the heels of Tea Party favorite Greg Brannon's loss to establishment-friendly&nbsp;<span>North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis in a Senate primary in the Tar Heel State earlier this month.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The mounting evidence these grassroots insurgencies are not catching on with voters and potentially help vulnerable Democrats survive has led some conservatives to suggest a new strategy &mdash; abandoning the Tea Party revolution and backing establishment candidates.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">One top Republican strategist told Business Insider the money grassroots groups spent in Georgia and Kentucky could have been put to far better use in other states.</span></p>
<p>"It stands to reason that the millions of dollars spent waging this primary challenge could have been better utilized elsewhere if the goal is building a conservative Senate majority," the strategist said.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"Imagine the difference if millions had been spent say, supporting Tom Cotton in Arkansas, or Cory Gardner in Colorado, or Steve Daines in Montana."</span></p>
<p><span>For his part, Erickson, though he's a staunch grassroots supporter, plans to move past the intra-party squabbling. Before the polls closed Tuesday, Erickson touted his donation to the McConnell campaign on Twitter:</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>If I can, you can. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23majority&amp;src=hash">#majority</a> <a href="http://t.co/nVsGXnalue">pic.twitter.com/nVsGXnalue</a></p>
&mdash; Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) <a href="https://twitter.com/EWErickson/statuses/468849117163433985">May 20, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kentucky-georgia-oregon-primaries-mcconnell-bevin-polls-2014-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-house-votes-ex-irs-official-lois-lerner-in-contempt-of-congress-2014-07House Votes To Hold Ex-IRS Official Lois Lerner In Contempt Of Congresshttp://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-house-votes-ex-irs-official-lois-lerner-in-contempt-of-congress-2014-07
Wed, 07 May 2014 20:04:00 -0400Patrick Temple-West
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/536aca05ecad04b858fb3b23-1200-924/lerner-3.jpg" border="0" alt="Lerner" /></p><p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution finding former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about her alleged role in the tax agency's tax-exempt targeting controversy.</p>
<p>Lerner, the former head of the IRS's tax-exempt division, sparked a scandal in May 2013 when she publicly apologized for what she called "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups applying for tax-exempt status.</p>
<p>Republicans, who have a majority in the House of Representatives, have tried to link the White House to the IRS' conduct, but without success.</p>
<p>Lerner, who retired from the agency in September 2013, has denied any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>(Reporting By Patrick Temple-West; Editing by Sandra Maler)</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-house-votes-ex-irs-official-lois-lerner-in-contempt-of-congress-2014-07#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>